There is an industry perception that particle counting is not practical in a running engine environment due to, inter alia, build up of soot in the engine oil. In the prior art, several methods exist for determining soot buildup. In one prior art method, particles in diesel engine oil are counted by cutting open the oil filter and visually counting the particles after an engine dynamometer test procedure. In another method, a bottle sampler is utilized to catch oil samples. The samples are then visually examined for clues as to contamination or spectrographically analyzed. These methods allow for the counting of particles large enough to be seen by the human eye, but fails to detect debris circulating in an engine oil system while the engine is running, for instance in a dynamometer test.
A problem with the known prior art method is the cost associated with not detecting particles smaller than what an oil filter catches. Current oil filters do not catch all of the particles that can cause engine wear; they only catch large particles. This may shorten the life of the engine and result in higher repair costs.
An additional problem with the prior art method is the inability to detect harmful levels of particles in the engine until after an oil change. This delay can cause damage to the engine and result in high repair costs.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems or disadvantages associated with the prior art.